Who has used an elastrator to dehorn?

[desertshi]

I am looking into this as an aid for my goats. WHo has done this and what results did you have. Would you do it again? Did this change your relationship with your goats? Were they distrusting or did it not affect relationship at all? Any info would be GREAT!

[Briza]

We did a group of 6 month old doelings. It worked very well. They were head shy during the process but got over it after they shed the horns. You must be willing to keep track of the bands to make sure they are biting in and not getting scraped off. They work pretty hard at that for awhile. The biggest trick is restraining them while you file a notch for the band to sit in. My DH built a box much like a disbudding box only sized up for the yearlings. It worked well to have nothing but the head to control. He put a screw eye in the front of the box under where the neck comes out and we put a halter on them and clipped it to that so they could not toss up and down and we only had to control side to side head movement. They were not particularly happy about us filing a notch in the base of the horn but using a new triangular file it did not take long. There were a couple with minor scurs as adults and only one had a bleeding problem from knocking the horn off before the blood supply was completely cut off. We cauterized with disbudding iron and she was fine. It is far preferable to horns and works the best on young animals. We tried an older doe and it just made a dent and sat there till the band rotted. Good Luck. The experience will make you appreciate how easy it is to disbud and yes I would for sure do it again.

[KSALguy]

i banded a few horns on problem does, there is a natural groove at the very base of the horn right at the hair line, roll the band down and be sure it sticks and then in about a week or two the horn falls off, i wouldnt do it on a large bucks horns, just too much there, but adult does have narrow horns anyway so it was no problem,

[oberhaslikid]

My Mom and Dad used this method I remember growing up. I tried it on an older doe. I didnt get down far enough to the hair line. She would rub the band untill it broke. I suggest to use duct tape after I put 2 bands on side by side I duct taped it on.

[farmmom]

I did this on a few goats, some Nubians and a friends Pygmies. It worked well. I shaved around the base of the horn and double banded and covered with duct tape. The only problem I had was the most dominant of the Pygmies knocked one off too early and it bled, but blood stop powder and a little pressure took care of that. I don't do this any more as I disbud shortly after birth.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Not successfully. Had trouble with the bands not staying down. When re-doing them, two doelings were so upset that it took a while for them to trust me again. Had scurs.

Won't do it again.

[deetu]

I put double bands on a scur with duct tape and nothing ever happened. dunno?

[HappyFarmer]

We also had problems keeping the bands in place. Several re-adjustments and they stayed with duct tape finally. 6 months olds, took several weeks to fall off, 1 which I knocked off by accident, and blood did spurt out. They seemed in pain for the last few weeks. Scurs did grow back anyway, at which point we had them de-horned by the vet.

No I would not do it again, they were head shy, in pain, and I felt horrible when I knocked that horn off prematurely & blood spattered & the goat crying out in immense obvious pain that lingered. Much better IMO to have a vet take them off or disbud early which is a quick process.

HF

[wintrrwolf]

So if you have a 3 yr old goat with horns that is starting to get her head stuck in the fence. Would this method be recommended? Or spend hundred's of dollars re-fencing, or couple hundred having the horns removed by a vet, or have her wear a pvc pipe headpiece(with bells ) Getting rid of her is not an option...
at her age would this banding be safe?

[southerngurl]

I've used them twice and they worked well. It's very hard to get them on right, they need to be down under the base of the horn.

One of the ones I did was a young goat, 3 months or so if I remember right. She was a tog and her horns were probably 3 inches long when I put them on. I guess the immaturity of the horns caused the horn capsules to come off in like a week. But the core just hardened up like a horn, then fell off, regrew some fell off, regrew etc. Finally they never came back! Wierd. But did make her somewhat headshy, just about the top of her head. So if I did a kid again I would probably wait longer? But she ended up with a nice clean head.

[LaManchaPaul]

Desertshi, I failed to disbud properly and the horns on a MiniMancha grew as if I had not even burned them. I banded the three inch horns and one fell off the other lost its band. I have replaced it. the one that fell off now has an inch scur growing as if a horn.

I hope to never have to band again. Here are a couple of websites from my goatnotes:
de horning:
http://www.greatgoats.com/articles/dehorning.html

dis budding:
http://dairygoatinfo.com/index.php/topic,8217.0.html

[Feathers-N-Fur]

My first kid born here, we didn't feel comfortable trying disbudding. I banded her horns at about 4 or 5 months. Both horns came off, made a bloody mess, looked like we tried to kill her, then both horns regrew. I apparently didn't get the bands low enough. At age 2 I took her to the vet school and they took them off for free. Our vet school does a goat and sheep dehorning and ultrasound clinic every year. That was a year ago and her head is beautiful.

[Bricheze]

We had some FFA Boer goats that needed to be dehorned to be shown. We tried to use this technique to take off their horns and it was a nightmare, they kept breaking off the rubber bands, so we finally just cut the rest of the way through with a horn saw.

Disbudding is so much easier, and honestly, I think it's far less painful then this technique.

[billooo2]

I have done it a couple times. Shaved around the base of the horn. I put 2 bands on, and the goats never seemed to even notice anything after they were on.
Some people do not have the same kind of luck, and i do not know what the difference is...

[wintrrwolf]

Originally Posted by Feathers-N-Fur

My first kid born here, we didn't feel comfortable trying disbudding. I banded her horns at about 4 or 5 months. Both horns came off, made a bloody mess, looked like we tried to kill her, then both horns regrew. I apparently didn't get the bands low enough. At age 2 I took her to the vet school and they took them off for free. Our vet school does a goat and sheep dehorning and ultrasound clinic every year. That was a year ago and her head is beautiful.

I wish I had something similar here BUT have found living near a big city nothing is ever free...Vet Tech school here in KC, the Vet school is in Columbia, MO I really dont want to cause Sugarbaby any pain that is not needed. So guess we go with a permanent headdress of a PVC pipe, duct tape(found some white) and bells...

[Alice In TX/MO]

Please post a pic!

[Natalie Rose]

I bought a 3 year old doe from someone a month ago.
The day I picked her up she had one horn, the owners told me they had banded her and the other horn had fallen off earlier in the day and they had rebanded her other horn to make sure it would fall off.
Well its been about 5 weeks now and she still has that horn and it doesn't look like anything is even happening with it.
I don't know what is going to become of it.

[southerngurl]

Natalie, if the band is still on there, it will come off eventually. You can't tell when they are getting close, just one day you find the goat bloody lol.